WESTERN EUROPE

BRITAIN PROPOSES SWEEPING POWERS TO WATCH TERROR SUSPECTS

Prime Minister Blair’s government yesterday proposed sweeping new powers to tackle terrorism, including electronic tagging, curfews, and house arrest for terror suspects without trial.

The measures provoked swift dissent from civil libertarians and opposition politicians.

The home secretary, Charles Clarke, said the new “control orders” would apply to both foreigners and British nationals, and he promised to introduce legislation as soon as possible.

Eleven foreign terrorist suspects who have been held for three years without charge would not be released until the new powers were in place, he added.

“There remains a public emergency threatening the life of the nation,” Mr. Clarke told the House of Commons. “The threat is real and I believe that the steps I am announcing today will enable us more effectively to meet that threat.”

Many Britons disagreed, however, expressing fears that extending the government’s power would upset the balance between individual rights and the need for security.

The British government tried “internment” – locking people up without trial – in Northern Ireland, but abandoned that as a failure.

– Associated Press

PROSECUTOR: VAN GOGH KILLER DREAMED OF OVERTHROWING GOVERNMENT

The man accused of murdering filmmaker Theo van Gogh dreamed of replacing the Dutch government with an Islamic theocracy, and was supported by a network of like-minded fanatics, prosecutors said yesterday at the first public hearing in his case. The suspect, Amsterdam native Mohammed Bouyeri, 26, did not appear at the pretrial hearing, but his lawyer said Mr. Bouyeri wants to “be held accountable for his actions” and sees them as part of a religious war.

The new details underscore concerns over homegrown radicals in the Netherlands after the November 2 killing of Van Gogh, who offended many Muslims with his film “Submission,” which criticized the treatment of women under Islam.

“The murder made it clear that terrorism, inspired by an extreme interpretation of Islam, is a reality in our country,” prosecutor Frits van Straelen said.

– Associated Press

FRANCE ARRESTS 11 IN PROBE OF INSURGENT NETWORK

PARIS – Terror investigators arrested 11 associates of French Muslims who died fighting the insurgency in Iraq, accusing some of preparing to join the fight against American-led forces, officials said yesterday.

The French counterterrorism agency known as the DST carried out the sweep as part of its probe into a network suspected of dispatching Islamic combatants from France to Iraq.

Most of those detained were in their 20s and of immigrant origin, and at least three were ready join the Iraqi insurgency, said a senior intelligence official.

One was arrested at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle international airport and was thought to be about to leave for Iraq, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity. He added that at least two others were preparing to follow him.

Some of those arrested by France’s domestic counterterrorism and counterespionage intelligence agency, known as the DST, came from the same Paris neighborhoods as three French Muslims known to have been killed in Iraq, the official added. “It’s hard to say that they were a group, but these are people who knew each other, were influenced in the same way, in the same conditions and same neighborhood, and were committing themselves to the same route,” he said.

– Associated Press

EASTERN EUROPE

ADL PRAISES RUSSIAN RESPONSE TO ANTI-SEMITIC LETTER

The Russian Foreign Ministry’s speedy response to an anti-Semitic letter signed by nationalist and Communist members of Parliament was hailed by the Anti-Defamation League yesterday. The letter accused the Russian Jewish community of being responsible for anti-Semitism.

The legislators have withdrawn their letter.

“The speedy response of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to clearly state that the anti-Semitic expressions in the letter were not those of the official government, is an important message,” said the director of the ADL’s Moscow office, Alexander Axelrod. He urged that “those who signed the letter be identified and punished.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

NORTH AFRICA

SUDANESE AIR FORCE BOMBS DARFUR

CAIRO, Egypt – The Sudanese air force bombed villagers in South Darfur yesterday, observers from the African Union reported, and an international aid organization said casualties were inflicted.

“It is a major cease-fire violation,” said the senior AU political officer for Sudan, Jean Baptiste Natama.

Darfur rebels have often accused the government of using its air force against civilians, and Khartoum has usually denied such charges. Aerial bombardments are rarely confirmed by the African Union, which has about 1,400 cease-fire monitors and protection troops in the western Sudan region, where violence persists in spite of two cease-fire agreements.

The reported bombing comes a week after fighting in nearby districts in south Darfur killed about 100 people and caused more than 9,000 people to flee their homes, a U.N. spokesman said yesterday. Most of the dead were women and children, spokesman George Somerwill told reporters at the U.N. offices in Khartoum. He did not say whether rebel or pro-government forces were responsible.

– Associated Press